blowing tonight, a low-pressure storm system rolling out of the midwest will soon collide with another system coming out of the southeast. where they meet will be a classic nor'easter with blizzard conditions. blizzard warnings are up from northern new jersey to maine. and in some of the nation's most important transportation hubs 1600 flights have been canceled so far. david bernard is our weather consultant. david, what can we expect tonight? >> all the ingredients are coming together for that powerhouse area of low pressure. what i want to do is show you where we expect the storm to be tomorrow morning. those two systems are going to come together right here on the outer banks of north carolina. snow will be breaking out across most of new england tomorrow, maybe even the coastal areas and during the day tomorrow, by tomorrow evening heavy snow over the entire region, maybe right along the coast and in new york, we might be mixing a little bit, and during the day saturday, a full-blown blizzard for southeastern new england. late in the day saturday we

might start to get a little bit of an improvement there. how much snow are we talking about? this pink area, that could be up to two feet of snow across southeastern new england and even this purple area we now extend into northern new jersey including new york we could be talking about well over a foot of snow if all the ingredients come together. >> pelley: david, what are the dangers here? >> well, the big danger is the blizzard conditions. what does a blizzard exactly mean? we showed you how much snow we're going to expect but when you're talking about a blizzard, you're talking about powerful winds. in this case we would see gusts up to 60 miles per hour. that means power outages will be likely, and near-zero visibility at times scott. so people are going to have to be prepared to shelter in place where they are and they might be stuck there for a while if they're in the hardest hittizings. >> pelley: david thanks very much. in massachusetts, the governor is urging schools to close and he's ordered nonessential state workers to stay home tomorrow. the airports with the most cancellations tonight are

newark, boston, and laguardia. it is the first big storm after a fairly mild winter so far and here is more from terrell brown. >> reporter: many new england towns spent the day preparing for the storm. it could be as brutal as the blizzard that slammed into the region in 1978. back then, about 100 people were killed, and thousands were stranded. the northeast blizzard in december 2010 cost retailers $1 billion in sales as customers stayed home and stores closed. but this storm could mean salvation. at the blue hills ski area outside boston they've had two seasons with below-average snowfall. how big of a deal is this? >> this is a big deal for us. this is what it's all about. >> reporter: general manager vero piacentini says his resort got just eight inches of snow last year. that forced them to spend $250,000 on snow making. >> you go into last year where , you know, we were just scraping it all together trying to keep the ski area open.

and then you get into a year like this where it doesn't get any better right now. >> reporter: the low snowfall has been a brief respite for battered city and state budgets. last winter low snow totals saved providence, rhode island, $1.2 million. in manchester, new hampshire $636,000. and boston saved more than $11 million. much of the savings were put back into other city services. and, scott with forecasters predicting up to 30 inches of snow here, schools have already been closed tomorrow, and the airport here, the main airport logan, has been closed. it will be closed tomorrow afternoon and remain closed through the day on saturday. >> pelley: terrell, thank you. the next big story of the day, three people are dead, and a massive manhunt is on. after a former los angeles police officer allegedly launched a rampage of row venge. christopher dorner was fired by the l.a.p.d. in 2008.

tonight itarchs peer every officer on the force is a potential target. here is ben tracy. >> reporter: police in southern california are on full tactical alert and on edge. >> put your window down. >> reporter: officers have surrounded los angeles police headquarters to defend it from 33-year-old christopher dorner police chief charlie beck. >> dorner is to be considered armed and extremely dangerous. >> reporter: at 1:25 this morning the former cop and navy veteran allegedly shot at two police officers in corona, california wounding one. 20 minutes later he killed a riverside, california, policeman in a stop light ambush. dorner is believed to have multiple weapons including a semiautomatic rifle. >> of course he knows what he's doing. we trained him. he was also a member of the armed forces. it is-- it is extremely worrisome and scary, especially to the police officers involved. >> reporter: dorner was fired by the l.a. police department in

2008 after file a false brutality complaint against a fellow officer. a document dorner is believed to have posted on his facebook page listed 11 people targeted for revenge. it says, "the violence of action will be high. i will bring unconventional and asymmetrical warfare to those in lapd uniform whether on or off duty. you will now live the life of the prey." investigators believe dorner's rampage ban on sunday with the murder of monica quan and her fiance in i parked car. quan's father is a retired los angeles police captain who represented dorner at disciplinary hearings. dorner's taken post said about captain randy quan, "i never had the opportunity to have a family of my own. i'm terminating yourself." >> l.a.p.d. is a specific target but all law enforcement is targeted. this is a vendetta against all the southern california law enforcement, and it should be seen as such. >> reporter: dorner's wallet and badge were found in san diego this morning. police say he tried to steal a

boat wednesday night but could not get the boat to work. now, just moments ago we learned that authorities have found dorner's truck in the mountain down of big bear about 100 miles from here. scott, it was completely burned out, and swat teams were flown in on helicopters, and they now appear to be following footprints in the snow. >> pelley: ben, thank you very much senior correspondent john miller is a former assistant director of the f.b.i., and also a former commanding officer with the l.a.p.d. john, this is a real challenge for them. this man was trained by the l.a.p.d. >> reporter: and by the u.s. military. and not just trained. i mean, he has certifications in intelligence counter-intelligence. that'slet trade craft for being a spy for someone who wants to fly under the radar or disappear or change their identity. he has been trained in heavy weapons. he has been deployed in war zones. he has been trained in urban warfare tactics and after that going through the l.a.p.d. academy he was certainly trained in all the tactics training and procedure of the l.a.p.d., so he knows how

they work, too. it makes him formidable. >> pelley: how do they go after him then. >> reporter: this is a very interesting case. essentially he turned their role inside out. he has taken the hunters and made them part of the hunted. there are special assets, some of which used to come under my command like the special investigations section and these are guys who are highly trained surveillance experts. they can disappear into a neighborhood but they're also heavily armed trained marksmen and very tactically sufficient. they'll pull out all the stops and put their best people on it. >> pelley: the manhunt goes on john, thank you very much. the man who president obama wants to head the central intelligence agency had his senate corn firmation hearing today. john brennan's ceremony was interrupted several times by protesters who object to u.s. drone strikes overseas. brennan was the architect of that program. among those killed by the strikes was an american citizen who was a member of al qaeda in yemen. bob orr followed the hearing

today. >> reporter: as president obama's top counter-terrorism adviser, john brennan has overseen a five-fold increase in drone strikes against suspected terrorists. brennan today told the senate intelligence committee those strikes are critical for national security, but brennan said he'd rather capture terrorists than kill them. >> we only take such actions as a last resort to save lives when there's no other alternative to taking an action that's going to mitigate that threat. >> reporter: brennan defended a policy permitting americans to be targeted if they're actively plotting with al qaeda. orgong senator ron wyden objected. >> it's the idea of giving any president unfettered power to kill an american without checks and balances that is so troubling. every american has the right ton when their government believes it's allowed to kill them. >> reporter: the committee also questioned brennan about the enhanced interrogation techniques or eits, used to

question al qaeda terrorists. brer an was a high-ranking cia officer when the bush administration employed those harsh tactics. but brennan said he had no direct role in the program. >> i had expressed my personal objections and views to my-- some agency colleagues about certain of those e.i.t., such as water boarding, nudity, and others where i professed my personal objection to it, but i did not try to stop it. >> reporter: brennan said water boarding should never have been approved and would never be used under his leadership. he also revealed he helped kill a plan in 1998 to launch a mission to capture osama bin laden. >> because it was not well grounded in intelligence, and its chance of success were minimal. >> reporter: in the end, the hearing was not as contentious as the white house had feared. there's no reason, scott, to think that brennan's nomination is in any kind of trouble. >> pelley: bob thanks very much. while they debate how the drones are being used, the technology

behind them is advancing rapidly. today, drones used to attack targets are flown by remote control by pilots on the the ground. but a new generation has no pilot at all. they can be completely guided by computer. david martin got a look at one of these today a new stellth aircraft for the navy. >> reporter: it looks like a stellth bomber and can carry 4,000 pounds of weapons. but there's no pilot in the cockpit. navy captain jame engdahl is director of what is called the x47-b project. >> it is an autonomous vehicle so it's flying itself. >> reporter: it looks an awful lot like a stellth bomber. >> it's a very unique aircraft. >> reporter: this after responding to a computer program, the x47-b launched from a land-based catapult from a navy test facility in maryland. so how did that test go? >> the test went very well. and it's very significant because this is the first time that we're actually doing catapult shots with a vehicle

with nobody in the cockpit. >> reporter: the x47-b has already performed tests abard the uss truman and will attempt its first unmanned takeoff and landing from an aircraft carrier. >> we're working the carrier schedules right now so some time this spring or summer. >> reporter: this time this spring or summer it will take off and land on a carrier. >> that's correct. >> reporter: the navy has not yet decided to arm the x47-b. it could be used for other missions such as surveillance and ( jamming of enemy air defenses but it could also be used to strike heavily defended targets without risking a pilot's life. a plane like that could one day carry weapons. >> yes. >> reporter: putting an armed drone on an aircraft carrier would give the navy capability to launch unmanned flights virtually any place in the world. >> the biggest thing is you don't have to worry about permission from other countries to operate a vehicle from some

foreign airfields. >> reporter: the x47-b is not scheduled to reach of the fleet until 2017, but when it does, drone warfare will go to a whole new level. >> pelley: fascinating, david thank you. you can see more of david's report on the future of drops this suspected on "cbs sunday morning." the mystery deepens in what's grounded boeing's plane of the future. and a hero to millions recovers from a health scare when the cbs evening news continues. that company, the united states postal service® works for thousands of home businesses. because at usps.com® you can pay, print and have your packages picked up for free. i can even drop off free boxes. i wear a lot of hats. well, technically i wear one. the u.s. postal service® no business too small.

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expwhrel late today the f.a.a. gave boeing the go ahead to conduct limited test flights of the grounded 787 dreamliner. today boeing flew an empty 787 from texas back to its factory in washington state. the planes were grounded three weeks ago after batteries overheated twice. one of the batteries caught fire. sharyl attkisson has the latest on the investigation. >> reporter: today, federal investigators revealed the fire aboard the dreamliner in boston last month began with a short circuit in one of the lithiom ion battery's eight cells. that caused a dangerous condition known as thermal runaway, where a short spreads to other cells in an uncontrolled chemical chain reaction. the fire topped 500 degrees fahrenheit. it's something boeing's development studies didn't predict. chairman of the national transportation safety board deborah hersman says boeing was

also incorrect in estimate a dreamliner battery would heat up and smoke less than once in 10 million flight hours. >> we have seen two events on two aircraft less than two weeks apart. >> reporter: hersman says that's good reason to question the entire process the f.a.a. used to certify the dreamliner's battery system as safe and air worthy. when the dreamliner was developed, federal guidelines for its planned use of lithiom ion batteries didn't exist. so the f.a.a. issued whose called special conditions and relied largely on boeing's own studies to approve the plane. eventual eventually, guidelines for the batteries were created in 2008. they require specific technical tests to prove the battery's safety casing would contain and any fire and prevent a possible explosion but the dreamliner was grandfathered in and didn't have to meet them. former national transportation safety board member joh goglia said that may change.

should boeing have to go back in light of the questions and meet that standard that's in effect today? >> now that they're in a certification review the f.a.a. may very well hold them to the highest standard. >> reporter: late today boeing said it will not hesitate to make changes that will improve testing products and processes. as far as the investigation investigators say they're focusing in now on the battery charger. the battery design and manufacturing, and also possible manufacturing defects. >> pelley: still a mystery. sharyl, thank you very much. we learned today that president obama overruled his entire national security team when he decided not to arm the syrian rebels fighting the assad dictatorship. outgoing defense secretary leon panetta told a senate commit they he, former secretary of state hillary clinton and former cia director david petraeus all advised the president to ship weapons to the rebels. the president said he decide against it out of concern that the arms would find their way to terrorists. a fischerman caught a great

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in south africa, a big catch landed a fisherman in big trouble. two years ago leon bekker reeled in killed a great white shark and he took the pictures to prove it. turns out killing a great white violates south african law so bekker pleaded guilty and he is the first person to be penalized under that law and ordered to pay a $13,000 fine. nelson mandela's family said today he's in good health and doing very well after his recent stay in the hospital. they released a new picture taken last weekend of the former south african president with his youngest great-grandchild, one-year-old zen. mandela, who is 94, is recovering from gallstone surgery. they were caught in the middle when russia banned adoptions by americans. so what happened to their child? that's next.

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families, and tonight she has an update. >> reporter: we first met robert and kim summers a month ago. they were just weeks away from picking up their new son preston, from a russian orphanage, when vladimir putin announced a ban on americans adopting russian children. >> i cannot put into words how my wife and i feel right now and we ask president putin please, consider alternate means but don't let these children suffer. please. that's all we ask. >> reporter: despite the ban the summers decided to travel to russia. when you left for russia, did you know for sure that you'd be able to bring preston home? >> we did not know. we just prayed and kept the faith and just kept believing that, you know, all of our efforts would pay off. >> reporter: it was mid-january, and they visited preston in his orphanage outside

moscow. they finalized his paperwork and went to pick up his passport at a russian government office. >> she looked at it and she said in russian "americans?" "i thought there was a ban on americans. how can we give them this passport." >> we held our breath and i gasped for air and i said, "oh no. please don't let us go through all this and we're going to have problems." >> reporter: they returned the next day and found out the ban did not apply to them because a judge had already signed off on their adoption before the law was passed. five days later they left russia and brought preston home. >> robert and i looked at each other and we said, "it's over. it's over." and i can't even tell you the relief and how elated we are. i completely understand when a mother says that she takes one look at her newborn child and instantly is in love with that child.

>> i love you! i'm in love with him. i'm in love with him and i do believe that he's in love with us, too. >> reporter: the state department estimates just 50 american families whose adoption have been approved by judges will be allowed to leave russia with their new children. the summers consider themselves blessed to be among them. elaine quijano, cbs news, freehold, new jersey. >> pelley: and that's the cbs evening news for tonight. for all of us at cbs news all around the world event. good night. captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by media access g

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exclusive. >> does it bother you that your brother is still married and yet she's pregnant with another man's child? >> kris humphries sister today. who will be zee claired the dad on the birth certificate? >> what does chris want out of the divorce? >> what kim's mom is only telling e.t. the just leaked grammys fashion rules. >> how the grammys are trying to stop the stars from showing too much skin. >> female breasts